Thursday, October 30, 2008

New violence this morning...Bombs thrown at PAD guards, Judge's home

I woke up this morning, even more depressed than the day before.

At around midnight, a bomb was hurled into the house of Charan Pakdithanakul, a well-known Constitutional Court judge who had come under attack by pro-government groups on state-run NBT television channel.

At 3.20 am, M-26 grenades were thrown into a group of guards of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) at Makkawan Bridge. At last report, at least nine persons were injured, one seriously.

A while later, gunshots were heard fired into a PAD rally, at a nearby location(Chamaimaruchet Bridge, near Government House.)

Who's behind this new escalation of violence? If the Somchai government is serious about law and order, it won't be too difficult a question to answer. But if the government remains "neutral" as it has claimed all along, accusations of government-sponsored violence against anti-government elements will fly high and thick today.

It's also interesting to note that this latest seires of violent incidents took place just a few hours before the PAD was scheduled to hold a rally in front of the British Embassy to pressure the British government to extradite former Premier Thaksin Shinnawatr who has been sentenced to two years in jail for "conflict of interest" when he allowed his wife to take part in a bidding for a piece of land put up for auction by a government agency.